Melissa Barbeau

In The Luminous Sea, a team of ocean researchers has descended on remote Damson Bay, Newfoundland, drawn there to study a strange phenomena: the bay has been overrun with jellyfish and the water has been lit by an unusual phosphorescence. When lab assistant Vivienne heads out on a routine expedition to collect samples, she captures a creature that bears no resemblance to anything she’s previously seen or heard tell of. But despite not knowing what it is, from the moment she hauls it into the boat Vivienne senses an intuitive and inexplicable bond with the creature and quickly falls into the habit of referring to the fish not as “it” but as “she.” Vivienne reports back to her supervisor and project lead, Colleen, who immediately recognizes that whatever it is that Vivienne has stumbled across has the potential to give her career a serious boost and possibly even make her famous. Colleen reports the find up the chain to her own supervisor, Dr. John Isaiah, who, motivated by a similarly covetous sense of opportunity—surely this strange sea creature is precisely the thing that will revive his foundering academic career and restore his reputation—walks out of a conference he’s attending at the other end of the country and hurries to Damson Bay, where he immediately takes charge of the project. Days go by with the creature held in the research team’s makeshift lab, in a freezer that’s been crudely converted into an aquarium. Vivienne watches, disheartened and with mounting revulsion, as Colleen and Isaiah subject the creature to a variety of invasive procedures, and then with growing despair as the creature languishes, captivity dulling its appearance and sapping its vitality. Vivienne’s sympathy for the creature—her concern for its well-being—which Colleen detects and derides, puts her at odds with the two senior scientists and leaves her on the outside of the project looking in. As the narrative progresses we meet other residents of Damson Bay, one of which is Tama, proprietor of a local café/diner, who befriends Vivienne and becomes a confidant and, ultimately, an ally. Melissa Barbeau’s concise novel is a delight to read: suspenseful and exquisitely written, the prose limpid and graceful, filled with poetic flourishes and vividly rendered descriptive passages. All of Barbeau’s characters come to life—the heartless, unprincipled, despicable Colleen is a standout—but the star of this atmospheric drama is gentle, heartsick Vivienne, whose mystical connection to the creature she pulled from the glowing waters of Damson Bay compels her to take matters into her own hands.… (meer)